The
Zen Master was considered to be enlightened and known world wide
Face-to-Face With the Zen Master
by E. Raymond
Rock
Boulder was
always spiritually alive, and one day I noticed a flyer tacked to a
utility pole on the Boulder pedestrian mall advertising a two-day
intensive meditation retreat in the neighboring town of Broomfield.
Since we had never attended a retreat hosted by a Zen master before,
we decided to go.
It was
conducted in a large home on a pretty piece of property surrounded
by beautiful trees and flowers, a nice stetting, and we were
surprised how many people decided to attend - there were cars parked
all over the place. I wasn't aware at the time that the Zen master
was considered to be enlightened and known world wide! We all found
seats facing the various walls, and after the schedule and rules
were covered, we began to sit.
We were
happily meditating on the second day when I felt a tap on my
shoulder.
"Would you
like an interview?"
"Sure," I
whispered, thinking, Why not? I don't need any help, but who knows,
he might have something interesting to say (typical Western
attitude).
I was shown
upstairs and found the Zen Master sitting on a meditation cushion in
the middle of a huge room, holding a weird staff in his right hand
looking very much like a crooked tree limb growing out of the floor.
He was wearing a funny hat and looked quite comical. But he wasn't
smiling. I entered the room, bowed respectfully, and then just stood
there for a moment, not knowing what to do. He pointed to a cushion
across from him, indicating that I should sit.
I sat quietly
for a few seconds until he loudly asked, "WHERE YOU COME FROM?"
Wow! Where do
I come from? This was definitely a metaphysical question - he was
testing me, trying to establish where I was in my practice, and
while I was thinking about where I fundamentally came from, he
banged his staff on the floor impatiently and repeated, "WHERE YOU
COME FROM?"
"Slow down,
I'm thinking, I'm thinking," I thought to myself. "Hmmm . . . I am
just an emanation of the Fundamental Reality . . . no that's not
quite right. Maybe I . . .
BANG! The
staff again, as he shouted, DON'T KNOW!"
I looked at
him, puzzled, and he banged the stick again, "DON'T KNOW! DON'T
KNOW!" he yelled.
I finally got
the idea and repeated, quietly, "DON'T KNOW?"
"Good," he
said, "now . . . What are you?"
Whoa, another
great, deep question! And as I tried to figure this one out, there
went the stick . . .BANG! "DON'T KNOW, DON'T KNOW . . . STUPID!" he
yelled again.
Sheepishly, I
repeated, "DON'T KNOW?"
"Good," he
said, and then went on to ask more questions, but now I had the
idea, and every time he asked a question, I replied, "DON'T KNOW!
As he asked
more questions, I became confident with my "DON'T KNOWS" answering
almost before he finished his question. My replies were becoming
animated! "DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW! This was fun.
Then he asked,
"What your name?" and I of course replied, smiling, "DON'T KNOW!"
He looked at
me quizzically, then smiled thinly himself, raised his eyebrows, and
quietly said, "You don't know name?"
And something
hit me. I don't know what, or why, but something changed deep inside
of me right then and there.
He pointed to
the door and I knew that my interview was over, an interview that
was only a few minutes long but taught me more about my practice
than anything else to that point; or maybe I was working up to it,
at any rate, it was the best two days I had ever spent, and when I
left the hall that afternoon and stepped outside, the trees and
flowers surrounding the property were different -- they were
dazzling -- and they have dazzled ever since.
On the drive
home, I was quiet. I felt sorry for the ones who will never risk
taking the initial, uncomplicated step of looking inward. Perhaps
they are too caught up in life to stop for even a moment, thinking
maybe that inner reflection is silly New Age thing, or a waste of
time. They don't understand that every minute of meditation plants a
seed, that someday, with certainty, will free them and change their
destinies forever.
E. Raymond
Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at
the Southwest Florida Insight Center,
http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight
years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents,
including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote
northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book,
A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now
available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit
http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
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